Telephone country code A telephone country code is a country-specific telephone number prefix for international direct dialing (IDD), a system for reaching telephone service subscribers in foreign areas via international telecommunication networks. Country codes are de ...

: 506

International Call Prefix International direct dialing (IDD) or international subscriber dialling (ISD) is placing an International call, international telephone call, dialed directly by a telephone subscriber, rather than by a switchboard operator, telephone operator. Sub ...

: 00 As of 2010 the government body in charge of allocations is the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones SUTEL.SUTEL
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History of allocations

Prefix 00 was reserved for international calls, while prefix 9 was assigned to special numbers, such as

911 911, 9/11 or Nine Eleven may refer to: Dates * AD 911 * 911 BC * September 11 ** The 2001 September 11 attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda, commonly referred to as 9/11 ** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that ousted the ...

Toll-free number A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number is free of charge, unless air-charges apply for mobile telephone service. A toll-free ...

s start with 800 followed by 7 digits while premium-rate numbers start with 900 followed by 7 digits. Before 1994, all phone numbers in Costa Rica were six digits long. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, which at that time had the monopoly on telecommunications, introduced a system in which the telephone numbers in every

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

were assigned a prefix to make them 7 digits long. This numbering system was effective for some time. However, the boom of mobile phone customers since the introduction of

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

around 2000 and the expansion of metropolitan areas caused a serious shortage of available numbers. Thus many GSM-based customers used numbers starting with 3 and many residents of San Jose province had telephone numbers starting with prefixes other than 2. Since March 20, 2008, a renewed numbering system added the prefix 2 for all

landline A landline is a physical telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber from the subscriber's premises to the network, allowing multiple phones to operate simultaneously on the same phone number. It is also referred to as plain old ...

s and 8 for all

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

numbers. This system was implemented in order to face the introduction of 1.5 million 3G

W-CDMA The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency ...

customers in Q1 2009. The transition to 8-digit numbers was heavily publicized in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

n media. However, the change caused considerable confusion among foreigners. Also, all calls dialed using the old 7-digit version of the phone number are automatically redirected to a voice message with information about the change. In 2010, after the end of the government monopoly in telecommunications, prefixes 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were assigned to private operators. 8-digit numbers are commonly written one of two ways: "xxxxxxxx" or "xxxx-xxxx"

Current Costa Rica number plan

Special Costa Rica numbers

References

Sources

SUTEL Registro de Numeración
(In Spanish)
SUTEL Plan Nacional de Numeración
(In Spanish)

External links

800 Toll Free Numbers Costa Rica
- Phonebook Database {{North America topic, Telephone numbers in

Costa Rica communications-related lists Telecommunications in Costa Rica